Isaiah 2:1–5 Isaiah’s vision in this segment comes just after he describes bloodletting and rebelliousness of ungodly scope within the people of Judah and Jerusalem. Now, the prophet offers a hopeful image of warfare and violence replaced with peace in the near future.
Psalm 122 The psalmist describes a “return home” of the twelve tribes of Israel to Jerusalem to seek reunification with God. In this great reunion, the author envisions peace, prosperity, and safety.
Romans 13:11–14 Paul encourages the early church in Rome to set aside their old ways of doing things, taking up instead what he calls a divine “armour of light” in preparation for salvation of the world at God’s hand.
Matthew 24:36–44 Jesus’s followers want to know when to be ready for God’s return to earth, and his answer is “always!” He doesn’t know, nor does anyone else, when that time will be exactly, but he reminds them of the excessive living of those consumed by the great flood. Basically, Jesus says to expect God’s return when you expect it least, and that when it happens, a lot of people will be taken by surprise.
Amoz—The main significance of Isaiah’s father being named here is that this was usually done to indicate that both father and son were prophets. So the prophetic apple didn’t fall far from the tree.
Plowshares/Pruning Hooks—Basic farming gear. The image is that tools used to bring about death would instead be converted to those used to yield new life.
Judah—This kingdom was just south of Israel, which existed about one thousand years before the birth of Jesus. It was a mostly rural region that lacked the military fortifications that somewhere like Jerusalem would have had.
Armour of Light—Paul is intentionally making a reference back to the images evoked in the Isaiah text, calling on people to stop concentrating on the stuff of war and death, opting instead to focus on life-giving things.
Like the Psalmist, Isaiah believes that the city of Jerusalem is a particularly holy place, one where God effectively resides on earth. He believes God will issue judgment over the conflicts among all of the twelve tribes and that only then will people finally recognize the futility of their war games. Some translations actually say that the text says people will no longer “play war” anymore, which seems to point to the ridiculousness of it all.
It’s hard to know for sure what the psalmist in Psalm 122 is saying in their prayer for peace, but it could be argued that they are asking for a more personal, internal peace for those who seek and follow God, and not for the reign of the city itself. It certainly changes our perspective on whether they’re praying for particular worldly outcomes or personal and collective transformation.
In Paul’s letter, war isn’t so much the problem but rather internal fighting, most likely within the church itself. But of course that never happens . . . right?
The Gospel text can present a challenge for those who understand Jesus to be fully divine and who believe God is all-knowing. Doesn’t it seem like Jesus is professing not to know the answer to their question about the timing of God’s coming? That, or maybe it’s a brush-off in a vernacular figure of speech, suggesting that their question is pretty dumb to begin with.
We have the means to evangelise our country; but they are slumbering in the pews of our churches
John Stott
1. Come, thou long expected Jesus,
born to set thy people free;
from our fears and sins release us,
let us find our rest in thee.
Israel's strength and consolation,
hope of all the earth thou art;
dear desire of every nation,
joy of every longing heart.
2. Born thy people to deliver,
born a child and yet a King,
born to reign in us forever,
now thy gracious kingdom bring.
By thine own eternal spirit
rule in all our hearts alone;
by thine all sufficient merit,
raise us to thy glorious throne.
Charles Wesley
Advent ... helps us to understand the fullness of the value and meaning of the mystery of Christmas. It is not just about commemorating the historical event, which occurred some 2,000 years ago in a little village of Judea. Instead, we must understand that our whole life should be an "advent", in vigilant expectation of Christ's final coming. To prepare our hearts to welcome the Lord who, as we say in the Creed, will come one day to judge the living and the dead, we must learn to recognize his presence in the events of daily life. Advent is then a period of intense training that directs us decisively to the One who has already come, who will come and who continuously comes.
Pope John Paul II
1418: The church, since it is made up of human beings, sometimes does bad and foolish things. Sometimes it tries but fails to correct itself. Consider the situation of Europe in 1414: there was not one pope, but three, each claiming to be the legitimate one (a situation known as the Great Schism). Sigismund, ruler of Germany, decided to end this embarrassing situation by calling a council of church officials from all over Europe, and the council assembled in Constance in southern Germany in November of 1414. One pope, John XXIII, agreed to step aside if the other two would—but another, Benedict XIII, refused, so the council deposed him. Meanwhile, John XXIII fled the council and declared it had no authority without him, but the council decreed its authority was from God and did not need a pope to approve its decrees. It deposed John, then the third pope, Gregory XII, abdicated willingly. A new pope, Martin V, was elected.
The council established the rule that councils of the church were to be called regularly to deal with issues—a worthy rule that was, alas, not adhered to. The council did two things that reform-minded Christians were horrified by: condemned and burned the reformer John Huss of Bohemia, and condemned, several years after his death, the English reformer John Wycliffe. In other words, a large council called to reform the church ended up accomplishing little except condemning two sincere reformers as heretics. The only worthy accomplishments of the Council of Constance which wrapped up on April 22, 1418, were ending the Great Schism and putting one man, a fairly decent one, on the pope’s throne. A century later, reform would come—not from a council but from Martin Luther and his followers breaking away from a corrupt church. The message of the Council of Constance was that the church was not going to correct its own abuses.
I just heard a radio interview today about how much we human beings hate waiting. But it’s so true, isn’t it? And the more technology and the more the rest of the world seems to accommodate our longing for instant fulfilment, the more we seem to adjust our expectations to remain just out of reach of what is possible.
Just two nights ago, I tried to watch a TV show while my kids were in their rooms doing their own YouTube browsing, when I got the dreaded “pinwheel of death.” You know what I mean: that darn spinning circle that is telling you to be patient while the system you’re using tries to fulfil your request.
After a miniature rant, it dawned on me that we were sitting in our house, trying to watch three different streaming videos all at once on one Cornish internet connection.
Right about then, my indignation for not being instantly satisfied seemed pretty ridiculous. We were kind of set up to ask the question “But when?” if we consider the future visions the psalmist and Isaiah cast out there, weren’t we? I mean, who wouldn’t ask that after someone tells them this amazing thing will happen soon. We want to know!
The problem with us is that once we actually have a deadline, we tend to take it as permission to slack off until more or less the last minute. So it’s not so much that Jesus is holding out on us in Matthew to be obnoxious; it’s more like he knows our nature. If the point were just to straighten up and do the right thing to avoid consequences, it would stand to reason that knowing the deadline would be really helpful. But it’s not.
The call to right thinking and acting is simply for the sake of righteousness itself. I’m guessing it’s not unlike when I remind my daughter that there will be consequences if she makes bad choices, only to have her ask me specifics on what those consequences will be. Clearly, when she asks that, she hasn’t internalised a sense of right and wrong yet.
I have to wonder if Jesus has a permanent palm print on his forehead like I do, from smacking myself in frustration every time I hear that question. Just do the right thing because it’s right, for crying out loud!
It’s always in my nature to act out of self-interest and self-preservation. So instead of asking for the results I want this week, help me focus on the internal, personal transformation to find the desire to do the right thing, rather than focusing on what will happen if I don’t. Amen.
One by U2
Come Together by The Beatles
A True Believer
Strong enough to be weak
Successful enough to fail
Busy enough to make time
Wise enough to say, “I don’t know”
Serious enough to laugh
Rich enough to be poor
Right enough to say, “I’m wrong”
Compassionate enough to discipline
Mature enough to be childlike
Important enough to be last
Planned enough to be spontaneous
Controlled enough to be flexible
Free enough to endure captivity
Knowledgeable enough to ask questions
Loving enough to be angry
Great enough to be anonymous
Responsible enough to play
Assured enough to be rejected
Victorious enough to lose
Industrious enough to relax
Leading enough to serve
Poem by Brewer
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